As a Paterson teacher and resident with a long family history rooted in the city of Paterson, I know a great deal about my city’s history. Understandably so, I am quite critical of any information source that boasts a complete and accurate history of my hometown. Prior to the recognition of the Great Falls as a historic landmark, there weren’t many sites that served as either incredibly informative or reliable. Now, even with national recognition and the title of “birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution,” there are only about ten.

I have selected three sites focused on Paterson history for my review: patersonhistory.com, a private site, patersongreatfalls.org, run by the Paterson friends of the Great Falls, a historical preservation organization, and the official site of the Paterson Museum, patersonmuseum.com. All share the same basic aim, to educate others about and to preserve the history of the City of Paterson, and are intended for the same general audience, whether they be residents, students or just browsing history enthusiasts. However, their differences between them lie in the motive behind each individual site, a factor that could inadvertently affect the integrity and credibility of the site. Below is a general overview.

Patersonhistory.com

Patersongreatfalls.org

Patersonmuseum.com

Aims

As per the site: “The PatersonHistory.com website is a privately funded project dedicated to the preservation of the rich history of the City of Paterson and to those who seek to expand their knowledge of it.”

This site is dedicated to the historical preservation of the Great Falls and the surrounding area. As per the site, it is “dedicated to protecting and promoting the cultural and economic growth in the Great Falls / S.U.M. National Historic Landmark District in the City of Paterson, New Jersey… increasing public awareness…providing leadership on issues related to historic preservation, environmental protection, planning, and economic development.

The obvious aim of this site is to promote the museum, its exhibits and events. Additionally, the Paterson Museum site features a host of blogs on specific topics of Paterson history.

Friends of the Great Falls acknowledges the accredited sources its author(s) used to write the histories it features.

The Paterson Museum blogs feature no names for authors, nor does it contain any sources. All information appears to be written on behalf of the museum.

The Friends of the Great Falls site is primarily intended to promote the historical preservation of the Great Falls and its surrounding area. However, the site is no longer current. It almost seems that as soon as the Falls received National Park status, the creators of the site failed to update it on a regular basis, if at all. For example, there is a link for “The News,” which features a list of progress updates, the last of which was in 2005. Although it specifically states: “We also advocate preserving other historic districts and environmentally sensitive areas as a means to revitalizing communities and improving quality of life,” there has been no information provided about these possible sites.

It is not my intention to undercut any attempt at preserving Paterson historic sites. To the contrary, I believe the city would benefit from an informative soundboard, a site that amplifies concern and demands the protection of its history and revitalization of Paterson pride. Perhaps if the community was aware of the sites that are at risk, more could be done to defend the integrity our hometown. Most notably, I would have thought that the long awaited decision, on the part of the Paterson Board of Education, finally approving Hinchcliffe Stadium’s local landmark status, would have merited a post on a site dedicated to the historical preservation of Paterson. The Stadium, after all, is right behind the falls. Alas, the only follow up provided on the site is a flashing notification at the top right corner of the Home screen, stating that the Great Falls achieved national park status; regrettably, there is no date to go with the update.

I believe the city would benefit from an informative soundboard, a site that amplifies concern and demands the protection of its history and revitalization of Paterson pride. Perhaps if the community was aware of the sites that are at risk, more could be done to defend the integrity our hometown.

Likewise, this site appears to be frozen in time in terms of organization as well as design, not only in terms of aesthetics, but also in terms of the featured historical content. The topics are very general, blandly written and stale; it reads like an illustrated encyclopedia that cannot be updated. There is no attempt revive the writing or make the history relevant to the younger generation, which would be, after all, the generation we will eventually charge with Paterson’s historical preservation. There are some links to images within the text, through which the user may view the image or document being referenced, but some of these links are broken. Also, there are forward and backward buttons featured at the bottom of each page for easy navigation among the twenty pages of that make up the site, but broken links force the user to go back to the main page and start again.

Patersonhistory.com makes up in historical content for what it lacks in design and ease of navigation. Though its layout leaves much to be desired, the organization of the majority of information is incredibly helpful, especially since there are no search tools. This is the site to which myself and my students most often refer, simply because it features the most images and largest variety of topics. Being from Paterson, one comes to notice what topics have become the most general; Alexander Hamilton, the Great Falls, the S.U.M. and the silk mills, while important, tend to be very verbose. The students truly enjoy learning about the things that they see and the places that they visit on a daily basis. For example, Patersonhistory.com’s “Landmarks” page provides a walking tour of Downtown Paterson, complete with addresses and descriptions of the locations. There is also a tab for Municipal information, and Events tab for major events in the city’s history, and several others.

This is the site to which myself and my students most often refer, simply because it features the most images and largest variety of topics.

Unfortunately, for all of its organization and information, Patersonhistory.com has several flaws, the most frustrating being general inconsistency. First, the walking tour and the Municipal links provide detailed descriptions, but no images. The site has an extensive image collection, but would benefit from adding links to those images from their descriptions. There is an “important message” that appears at the top of the page, linking the reader a collection of flood images from Hurricane Sandy. These are not dated, nor do they feature captions divulging the locations. Such flaws are compounded by the absence of a search tool.

Second, the creator is not a historian or a Patersonian; the site is a hobby of his. I believe that this is a factor could potentially affect the integrity and credibility of the site. The wealth of information is not annotated, not all of the images have captions, the entries are not dated and the site is not current. Obviously, the site is a hobby, which is no crime; however, this is exactly why the information provided should be dated and properly annotated. If one intends to create a page that would ultimately serve as a reference source, it should be self-sufficient…and probably should not feature Calendar tab in a section called “What’s New.”

Finally, the organization of the site can be confusing. For example, while there are several tabs at the top of the page, akin to headings in an outline, there are also side tabs for other topics, which overlap with the top tabs. The end result is redundancy or neglect of information, especially since, again, there is no search tool. One visitor signed the guestbook and complained that School #12 was not featured under the School tab. I noticed that in the Events section, there were only four major events of the city’s history. As for current events, this site has not provided the progress with Hinchcliffe Stadium, the Great Falls National Park, and the Center City Mall link is still “under construction,” even though the mall was completed several years ago.

The Paterson Museum site is obviously intended to promote the museum, but its motive does not overstep the importance of the history of the city on which its existence is based. The logistics of the museum, the location, price of admission and list of exhibits, are clearly outlined on the Home page. Also, to its credit, it features a slideshow of historic landmarks on the Home screen. This together with its smart design, invite the user to want to browse the rest of the site, which also provides a link to the Paterson’s Municipal website, and one tab entitled Categories, which provides a host of mini-histories of the city, in the form of a blog and short posts with images, rather than overbearing, wordy entries. It is the only one of three sites in this review that features a search tool, has no broken links, and features only four tabs at the top to organize the information provided…and it is the most current!! It is not only user friendly but was clearly designed with the user in mind, aimed at piquing interest in the museum and the history of the city, and nothing else.

its motive does not overstep the importance of the history of the city on which its existence is based.

To be sure, each of the sites reviewed here presents its own unique contribution towards Paterson’s historical preservation; but there is always room for improvement. Paterson has a two hundred twenty-one year history, as of this coming July, which presents a daunting task for anyone to undertake. Considering that Paterson’s history embodies every fundamental topic within American history, from the Revolutionary War to the Industrial Revolution, to immigration and urbanization, urban decay and revitalization, it would be only too easy for one to leave out a piece of information that another might find important. One might even expect that the only creator suited to produce a credible and comprehensive site would be a professional or an academic. Yet, in my opinion, these too might be lacking in the personal passion and pride a Patersonian would convey about Paterson history.

**To be sure, each of the sites reviewed here presents its own unique contribution towards Paterson’s historical preservation; but there is always room for improvement.*

In conclusion, I feel strongly that the Paterson Museum site features the history of Paterson in the most informative, innovative and interesting way…and I’d like to think that a Patersonian created it. Hopefully, each of the sites reviewed here will serve as inspiration for a new generation of historians, conservationists or concerned citizens, who will make either a hobby or their business to preserve and polish Paterson history online.